Fightin' Spirit

by Iolaus

An Offer and a New Student

"Sir," a well dressed attendant said as she walked through the automatic doors connecting the control room to the hallway, catching the attention of the man directing the flow of heroes. The woman held a tablet in her hand, fiddling with the screen as she pulled up information.

The director turned his head from the large screens showing different areas of the world and looked over at the woman, "Yes?"

He could afford to take this new distraction slowly, the recent string of monster attacks has slowed down considerably. Normally he would have been grateful at the decrease, but the sudden influx and its swift stop had him more than a little concerned. He was no fool, something was up and he needed to figure out what it was before it was too late.

The attendant held out the tablet for him to take a look at, "The attack on the school in the Canterlot district has been resolved. No casualties reported, and the only destroyed property was one of the school's field houses and a small part of their baseball field."

"Ah, so the heroes we sent there managed to defeat Demon Quarterback?" the director asked as he took the tablet from the woman, his eyes widening when he saw everything being presented to him.

"Not quite, sir," she replied. "When they arrived at the scene the monster in question was already dead. Its head was caved in and its helmet was completely destroyed, we found what we believe to be the weapon used to do that off to the side of the monster's corpse. A regular baseball bat used by the school in question, even if it is bent beyond repair."

"Impossible," the director breathed, yet he could not dismiss the facts laid before him. "To do something like this with such a simple weapon... Do we know who did it?"

The attendant pushed up her glasses, "I believe so. If you look at the video files you'll see what the security cameras have managed to catch. Admittedly it is of poor quality, but you can get the gist of what had transpired."

The director pulled up one the video files and watched the fight as best he could. When the video finished he eventually said, "It seems to me that whoever took out Demon Quarterback was a student there. Do we have anyone to search for?"

"Yes, out of every student at that school, only one of them has been sent to the hospital after sustaining injuries. Four fractured ribs, a minor scratch on the chest, and a bruised cheek, I believe."

The director opened up a file that had the face of a tough looking student scowling mildly at the camera. "James huh?" the director mused as he scrolled through the information presented to him. An interesting fact struck him, "He's the adopted son of the principal there? No other records suggest he was even alive before a few weeks ago, his apparent sister too. How peculiar."

"Should we send a delegate over to the hospital he is staying at? I can have one sent within the hour," the attendant offered.

Her superior shook his head, "No, I'll go. I wish to meet this young man myself, make him an offer."

The woman nodded her head, "Very well, I'll ready a chopper to take you there now."

"Please do," the director said. He continued to read through James' file as the door behind him hissed shut, signaling the leave of his assistant.

---

Late evenings in hospitals were extremely boring.

That was just one of the many conclusions James came to as he sighed and laid back down on his hospital bed. Nothing good was on the television and there weren't any good books to read, even if he fancy himself a reader at least it would have been something. The only thing he could do right now was think about the tongue thrashing he was given by both his sister and his new mother before they were forced by the hospital staff to go home as visiting hours were over. Admittedly he felt bad about making them worry, but someone needed to stop that monster.

Thinking about the monster from earlier had made James realize that he and his sister might not be completely safe here. A sobering thought to be honest, and one he appreciated. Better to have it early than too late in his opinion, easier to deal with. If his family was going to be in danger then he would do his damnedest to see that no harm comes to them. No sense laying around with his thumb up his ass, he needed to do something about it.

If there were monsters out there then he just needs to bash their skulls in, simple as that.

James turned his phone on and opened up the web app to check out a website he had found during the ample free time he now had. Turns out that this new body and life he was given was only the beginning, this world had its own Heroes Association that started up a few months ago. He was planning to join it, after all what better way to prepare against future monsters than to join the Heroes Association? He'd even get paid doing it.

His web surfing was interrupted by a knock at his door. Confused at the interruption, as he was not expecting company, James called out, "Come in!"

The door opened to reveal a sharply dressed man who looked to be in his early thirties, he smiled at James as he closed the door behind him and took a seat next to his bed. He didn't say a word throughout all of this.

"So..." James began after a few awkward moments of the two just staring at each other. "Who the hell are you?"

The man chuckled at James' blunt question and replied, "My name is Fine Thrust, I'm the man who sends out heroes when we receive calls to action over at the Heroes Association. Its a pleasure to meet you James."

James clicked his tongue, "Heroes Association? Guessin' ya caught my fight with that Baby-Faced Quarterback then?"

Fine nodded, "Indeed, and a most impressive fight it was. Sadly I couldn't see a good portion of it since the school's cameras can only catch so much from so far away from the building. Not many people can say they bested such a strong Demon level threat on their own, much less someone as young as you."

"So what yer basically implying is that ya want me ta join the Association then is it?"

Fine Thrust looked at James, face masked completely in seriousness, "Yes, that is exactly it. We need more people like you, strong people, to deal with the ever growing threat of monsters. If what today had shown me is anything to go by, we need to gather as many as we can to combat evil. Else we are all doomed."

James grunted, "Don't gotta ask me twice, or be so damn cryptic about it, I'm in. I got my own reasons ta kill monsters."

"Your sister and adoptive mother am I correct?"

"Ya done yer homework," James blandly replied.

Fine smiled at James, "Indeed I have, it comes with my job you see." The older man got up from his seat and smoothed his suit, "I need to get back to the Association now, and don't worry, I'll deal with all of the paperwork for you. We also paid for your hospital bill as a gesture of good will, expect a call from us sometime soon James." With that Fine Thrust started to leave the room.

"Wait," the older man stopped in the doorway. James grunted as Fine Thrust looked back at him, "Almost forgot, that monster said somethin' interesting before we fought."

"Hmm?" the older man looked at James confused.

James nodded, "Yeah, he said somethin' about bein' told there was someone tough ta fight him at my school. As if someone else already knew about me, thought it was weird an' all."

Fine Thrust looked down at the floor, face scrunched up as he thought about what James said. He nodded, seemingly to himself, and then looked back at James, "Thank you for the information James, we'll figure something out. This helps confirm there is someone else pulling the strings."

With that the man left, the door clicking shut behind him.

---

The weekend went by torturously slow for James, the hospital didn't want to let him leave the next day and the two most controlling women in his life wholeheartedly agreed with them. Fortunately he didn't have to spend any more time there. Others could say whatever they want about being turned into someone else you're not, James was only thankful that Metal Bat seemed to have accelerated healing. He was back and moving around by the time school started on Monday, only a little bit of tenderness remained of his previous injuries.

Now he stood in front of the school, simply observing the other students as they went inside. Many of them waved his way, he didn't really know why, but he waved back to be polite. He still had enough time to kill before his first class so James decided to sit on top of the statue's base and watch the clouds. Not a few minutes later his daydreaming was broken by angry grumbling, James looked down to see the crimson and yellow haired girl from Friday stalk down the sidewalk and stop at the base of the statue. She didn't seem to see him, busy as she was with complaining.

"Gah! I hate this world, so similar and yet so confusing!" the girl complained as she tried to get her backpack to secure properly.

James raised an eyebrow at that sentence, "This world? She an alien or somethin'?" James watched the girl clumsily fight with the backpack as if she never used her hands before. Eventually she just gave up and gripped the bag by its top handle. "Probably just crazy."

"Ya havin' trouble with that girlie?" James asked as he watched the girl start.

"Gah!" she cried, clutching her heart in shock. "How long have you been there?!"

James shrugged, "For a while now, it was funny watchin' you fail with that thing." The girl's cheeks lit up in embarrassment and fury, before she could retort James spoke up again, "So what's with that 'this world' stuff you were spouting out earlier? You crazy or somethin'?"

Immediately her fire died out and she seemed to choke on her words. Glaring at James for the briefest moments she gritted her teeth and lied, "Yes, I'm crazy. Just got out of the mental hospital, trying to come back into society."

James didn't buy it. "So what was up with this thing glowing and spittin' ya out then?" He tapped his knuckles on the statue's base as emphasis.

"Your imagination. Stuff like that doesn't happen," was her immediate reply.

James hummed but didn't push, he knew what he saw and would get her to spill everything eventually. He watched as she turned around and quickly marched into the school building. Not knowing what else to do James sat back up and stretched himself, preparing for the rest of the day. Then the bell rang.

He scrambled off the statue, "Shit! Gonna be late!"

Author's Note:

Been a while, Metal Bat was in my head again.

Comments

[Blade tormentor]

good job

[RealityDowngrade]

You should try getting it into your head a bit more, see how far you can go with it.

[Iolaus]

7851220 I really should, it's the only time I can motivate myself to actually write.

[KillerRobotQuote]

Yes, yes, yes. I was wondering about this story. Good to see it's not dead. Let's crack some skulls.